Eurogroup Head Confirms "It Has Become Serious", As He Is Back To Lying

Ergo, things in Europe are very serious again because the Eurogroup's head, who until recently promised he was quitting his post because "he had gotten tired of the Franco-German interference in managing the region's debt crisis", only to spoil the fun and say he was lying about that too, is back to doing what he does best - lying. To wit: "the euro countries are preparing together with the bailout fund EFSF and the European Central Bank to buy government bonds if necessary clip euro countries." And now cue Schauble: "Federal Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has rejected speculation about impending purchases of government bonds by Spanish EFSF and ECB."

"No time to lose": The chairman of the €-group sees a crucial point of the debt crisis has arrived. Jean-Claude Juncker supports plans by ECB chief Draghi for the purchase of government bonds - and Germany are partly to blame for the crisis. Berlin treats the euro area "as a branch." Also called "chatter on the withdrawal of Greece" is not helpful.

Juncker confirmed that the euro countries are preparing together with the bailout fund EFSF and the European Central Bank to buy government bonds if necessary clip euro countries. Because there is no doubt, he said. "It is still necessary to decide exactly what we will do and when." This depended "on the developments of the next few days and from reacting as fast as we need."

And to think only yesterday the only person whose opinion matters, Germany's Finance Minister, "denied plans for a new aid program for Spain, according to newspaper Welt am Sonntag, after the media reported European Union leaders aim for Spanish government bond purchases by the European rescue fund and the European Central Bank."

We leave it up to readers to figure out which of the above two is telling the truth, but in the meantime, here are some other soundbites from the man who is back to desperation pleading with markets:

Of course, it is much better to stick one's head in the sand and avoid the only possible outcome of this tragic farce that the implosion of Europe has become, and truly best to completely avoid any discussion of what happens in case of Plan B.

The euro zone is at a decisive point and leaders will work with the European Central Bank (ECB) to demonstrate their commitment to the stability of the single currency, Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker said in interviews with European newspapers.

Juncker told Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung and France's Le Figaro in reports made available on Sunday that leaders would decide in the next few days what measures to take to tackle Spanish bond yields which last week touched euro-era highs. They had "no time to lose," he said.

Asked whether it was true that France wanted the bailout fund to buy government bonds, under an agreement made by euro zone leaders at their summit in June, but that Germany was resisting, Juncker answered:

"I have no doubt that we will implement the agreements of the last summit. We still need to decide what we will do when. That depends on the developments of the next days."

The European bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), will work together with the ECB without affecting its independence, he said.

"We will work in close agreement with the ECB, and we will, as <ECB President> Mario Draghi said, see results. I don't want to drive expectations, but I must say, we have reached a decisive phase."

Draghi said on Thursday he would do whatever was necessary to protect the euro zone from collapse, prompting expectations of a new bond-buying program.

"The euro countries have reached a point where we have to use all means possible to show that we are determined to protect the stability of the euro zone... nobody should doubt the will of those involved, to prove our determination," Juncker said.

To summarize:

i) since the head of the Eurogroup is back to outright refuting what Germany said a day earlier, Europe is once again back to Plan B - lying, which means things are again on the verge of an all out collapse, and plunge in the EURUSD, which, as a reminder, is precisely what the German export industry wants more than anything, and

ii) just like in the June 29 summit, beggars are again hoping they can be choosers, and can force Germany, by way of a full blown media onslaught in which they represent that a vague possibility is now a certain outcome, and thus have already set expectations about 5% higher than it would be otherwise, to succumb to the will of the beggars, and allow full blown debt monetization.

And like back then, so now, all we can say to the broke periphery, which now apparently include France, but as David Einhorn said, it will take bond traders a little longer to figure it out, is good luck. It will be desperately needed.

As an appendix, here is Juncker's hillarious attempt to justify lying to Spiegel magazine at critical inflection points:

SPIEGEL: Mr. Prime Minister, you are a Christian Democrat and a Catholic, which is why we want to talk to you about the Ten Commandments.

SPIEGEL:Apparently you don't take it very seriously. More than two weeks ago, you denied a report by SPIEGEL ONLINE about a secret meeting of several European Union finance ministers to discuss the situation in Greece, even though the official limousines were already pulling up in Luxembourg.

Juncker: The most important commandment is not to inflict harm on others. Although it isn't stated quite that way in the Ten Commandments, it follows from them. The finance ministers of several Euro Group nations had agreed to meet on Friday with the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean-Claude Trichet. Because the financial markets in Europe were still open and trading was still underway on Wall Street, we had to deny the existence of the meeting. Otherwise the course of the euro against the dollar, which had already fallen as a result of your report, would have plunged disastrously.

SPIEGEL: With this false denial, you not only harmed your own credibility, but that of European financial policy as well.

Juncker: And it didn't exactly enhance the credibility of SPIEGEL ONLINE to disseminate the false report that we were meeting in Luxembourg to discuss Greece's withdrawal from the monetary union.

SPIEGEL: Forgive us for saying so, but SPIEGEL ONLINE had obtained information to that effect from government sources, as well as a working document prepared specifically for this meeting for the German finance minister.

Juncker: It is not unusual for finance ministers to have documents with them that contain all of the issues being discussed in public. And the question of Greece's withdrawal from the monetary union is certainly being discussed in public. But that's a far cry from saying that the issue is on the agenda of a meeting. As a result, I had to be all the more careful to ensure that no unnecessary turbulence would occur in the markets.

SPIEGEL: Are you saying that, as a finance minister in the age of global capital markets, you cannot tell people the truth?

Juncker:I do not have a ready answer to your question. My main concern is to protect people from detriment. That's why I feel practically compelled to make sure that no dangerous rumors begin to circulate. I'm certainly not going to go to confession because of a false denial. God understands more about the financial markets than many who write about them.

...

SPIEGEL: When secret meetings are held and the truth isn't always being told, people gain the impression that there must be something wrong with this Europe.

Juncker: People understand perfectly well that politicians have to discuss sensitive issues behind closed doors. I had 10 seconds to decide how to react to the report in SPIEGEL ONLINE. Let us say, hypothetically, that I had said: "Okay, we are having a meeting, but I'm not going to tell you what we intend to talk about." That would have triggered a tsunami in the financial markets. Instead, I chose to produce a small wave of outrage over a white lie.

the more i read the more i feel like we are in some kind of nightmare and we just need to wake up and SP will be at 600.

i dined with a brokerage firm owner over the weekend and he said, "yeah the markets are rigged, but i can't be negative or think about all these things-- it's bad for my business." we both knew that he's in the business of selling hopium and i kept my mouth shut. i figured if enough of these people kept positive they'd sell more junk product and keep markets floating.....until.....¿¿¿¿¿¿¿

Fuck man. How long are you all going to live in this hitting the fan moment? The market is doing fine with likely little to no qe. Bonds are bubbled, yes, but everything else is fine. Gold is breaking upward, oil is still going up, the fantasy is still here. Stop calling hitting the fan when this shit isn't hitting the fan! Save this shit for when the fan is really being struck with dumptrucks of it.

The Euro itself is a lie so every statement, policy or act in its defence is a lie. It was a lie from the beginning to believe that you could have German and PIIGS finances operating in harmony. It was a lie predicated on Germany lending to the PIIGS so they could then buy MADE IN GERMANY. The Euro was a fabrication intended to create a temporary Franco German Empire on the way to a new world order.

And of course one day we will be presented with the need for a new world order for the benefit of man and planet and that will be the greatest lie of all.

In my books a lie can only be condoned when used to save a human life providing the human life is not the life of a lying politician, banker or bureaucrat.

If you look at the British Empire circa 1900, Germany is pushing the latin block about as hard as Britain did its client states in southern Africa before the Boer War. London would never have dared play that rough with Canada or Australia at that time. Given the ultimate cost in blood and treasure, there's a good case to be made that going a bit slower with the Afrikaners would have been wise as well.

Given that the Kaiser provided every aid short of bootts on the ground to the losing side, Merkel and Schaubel might even find the info in the Foreign Ministry archives.

What did you say? Speak louder. I'm too busy watching women's hand ball. You know a sport, if you can call it that, no one would ever watch if not for it being the Olympics

I'll say it again, the stock market is a complete joke. There is no credibility in it anymore, yet Benny wants everyone in it. How can governments only care about inflating stock markets with bullshit is beyond me. The stock market is clearly not the economy. There is not multiplier effect when markets re 70% computers. Are we hoping HAL 9000 buys more silicon and that jump the economy? incredible. You are better off doing actual money drops from the helicopter.

Giving banks more money to lend to people who cant afford it fixes nothing. Defaulting or debt forgiveness is the only way to solve a debt problem. It may not solve deficit issue but who cares we are printing anyway and that hasnt done anything for reducing debt, might as well do it directly.

Since i,m French i,m gonna defend handball, one of the few sports we are good at.Hopefully as the dream team wins today so will France in handball, other countries need things to cheer about. Winning the 4x100 freestyle just isn,t enough even though it was my olympic moment this year.
Handball is very popular in some10 countries. In how many countries do you think Lacrosse is played? F, you call chearleading a sport....

Asked this earlier but not sure if anyone responded - apologies if you did.

At what point is it in Germany's interest to leave the Euro and return to the DM?

Ie. repudiate all agreements to date: renege on all common debt; refuse to continue to fund EFSF/ESM/E-whatever next; and simply redirect the money to sort out its own banks? At some point this has to become a no-brainer, right?

There might be some short-term benefits to keeping up appearances in that it allows the broken-assed periphery to mistakenly contribute to funding the current programmes/bailouts which, as we know, are simply pipelines straight back to the Northern banks - thanks PIIGS ;O) - but the tipping point must be out there somewhere.

There has to be a formula for this - only I'm too dim to even begin to express it.

The DM will return when the distance the can travels, when kicked, equals zero.

The Germans are "all in" I really don't see them pulling out of the Euro. Particularly if, (as I suspect) the CDU (Merkel's Party) loses power in the next election. Germans IMO are pretty much all socialist that includes the so called center right CDU. Center right takes on a whole new meaning in a socialist state.

As a European whose country was drafted into the euro without any consultation whatsoever, I'm really starting to reach my maximum bullshit tolerance level.
Those Euro heads are going to drag us all down with them.

They can discuss, even speculate, on issues that are market positive, but must keep negative matters a secret. That way markets will only ever get good news, so will always go up, thereby making everyone happy, consuming and buying shares in a self reinforcing feedback loop.

Yes, the stock market "is a complete Joke," but only for the buy-and-hold types...not the market manipulators. Governments inflate stock markets with BS because they're complicit in the manipulation. Leaders such as Draghi and Juncker are the excuses the manipulators use to take the stock market where they want. Juncker's lies have resulted in his being forced to play by Zymurgy's First Law of Evolving Systems Dynamics: "Once you open a can of worms, the only way to recan them is to use a larger can." (And if he keeps on lying, he will have to employ Boren's First Law: When in doubt, mumble.)

David Kotok put it the best: Draghi said he'll do 'whatever it takes' only if a European Banking Union is created. His wording around "believe me" was constructed as such that he will print only if there is a banking union.

So, nothing's happening next Thursday at the ECB meeting. The rally was a sucker rally that had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Draghi's speech. Since there are no retail suckers, a civil war between traders would has to leave some "soldiers" dead.

PFG collapsed few weeks ago (nobody's talking about it now). Let's see who's going to collapse these coming couple of weeks.

I read thru this earlier in the week. Closed report and began pruning trees on my property. The tooth fairy approach in sending capital back into the market is going to get unique. When they taunt their own money & no one joins into phantasy Market headlines.. Guess who will be shitting themselves? LOL

Why is it that the public isn't able to handle the truth, only the elite people can handle the facts, yet the public gets to vote on what they think, or are allowed to know, the politicians are doing? Now, that is a joke.

I feel fairly certain the ECB will ease this week, in some form/fashion to start buying Spanish debt.

Everyone on this site has been following Tyler's excellent ongoing narrative of declining economic indicators. It seems things are accelerating downward. The source is Europe. They have to stem Europe or everything comes crashing down.

I still think there may be a coordinated easing announcement but at a minimum, the ECB is going to move.

Junker is a physical manifestation of all that is wrong with the system. a man who has been on the wrong side of every decision regarding the eurozone. a larry summers, rubin, bernenke, giether rolled into one.

there should los be a standard rule no person ever working at an investment bank can be in a central bank. commercial yes, investment , no!!!

As a trader, I've already accepted the fact that this EU drama is going to be like watching a really terrible B-rated movie on a Friday night. It sucks, it's slow, and it's uncompelling but at the end of the day, you just have to roll with it because they're not gonna make it better.

I think TPTB will do everything they can until after the Olympics for Crises part II, just like they waited 2 weeks after the Beijing Games for the SHTF with the financial crises 2008. The world is watching.

The guys who control the hft bots and the guys who create the headlines are all reading from the same script. What could possibly go wrong? They've created a play and even ol' Schauble has his dramatic part to play. It looks like they've determined to push through to the end on this thing no matter how many people get hurt/killed in the process.

They're evil men, with an evil plan, doing whatever they need to do to create a unified Europe.

The good news is that the Lord is still in control and these men will get what is coming to them eventually.

The ECB comedy routine is getting old and very transpart - they can jawbone the market higher and have the bears eating thier shorts.
In this context how can one fault the perpetrators of the libor manipulation - the whole system is wrotten an manipulated. The financial system is built on trust.

When the Euro goes a great part of the financial sector in Luxemburg - Banks, Funds, Fund Managers, Legal and Tax advisors, housing and offices for employeess, supporting infrastructure - will, in his words, "disintegrate."